The Next Day

I'm thinking of heading to Target to buy a couple more of those big plastic bins. These would be to try and tame the garage, which is a big mess right now. I kind of like the idea. The bin idea, not the big mess idea.

Yesterday morning I dragged the kids to Petco to buy more cat food, then we had bagels at the bagel place. Nice not to be rushed.

It's five to eight, I ought to zip down to Target. I also wanted to mail Christmas cards. Which the kids have yet to sign. I'm not sure that Cassidy is awake at this time. Hmm.

Planted the roses at last

The three "shrub roses" I had seen at the good nursery in Poway (the small one) in September. Came back for them in October. Tried to decide where to plant them. Finally planted them today. Nearly the solstice.

The Japanese ferns I'd ordered from Burpee arrived half-dead and didn't improve from there. One of them wintered over but that was that.

Hopefully the shrub roses will do well in their new spots. The shrub roses have pinkish-red flowers. And very sharp and determined fucking thorns.

Very pleased to get those in the ground at last. Blessed each of them with a 4-gallon bucket of Superthrive and some kind of mysterious kelp-derived plant food. Watered out in front with one of those Miracle Grow plant food units.

The two Culpheas I'd planted out in front look a bit anemic. That whole area needs more water in general. From August on it's just too fucking hot to do anything in the garden. From August until... December. At the earliest.

I wish that the house had foot-thick adobe walls in the summer months.

Now it's nearly winter. Glad to have a fire in the fireplace. Nice and warm. One of the cats sleeps on the corner of the electric blanket.

Reorganized the web pages

Although most of the content is on blogger.com and most of the images are on flickr.com. Blogger is certainly more convenient than all those stray text files I once had.

Found an old (2002) spaceways.net intro Flash file I had, used that for a top later. Cassidy's teacher had one of those chunky classroom world maps on display when I was there for the "holiday feast" and I took a photo of the Southwest US and modified it.

That's about all. Plug in content. No reason to change or tweak things further at this point, if ever. I feel so organized. The garage should be as organized as the web pages. At least I don't have mountains of boxes and bins of stuff to keep things on the web pages or on the computer.

Satisfied that the web pages are cleaned up.

Woke up very early again this morning, about three.

Time to go and do something else now.

Friday at last. Christmas vacation.

Flynn just arrived home.

Camera and sunglasses both broken

I managed to DROP the camera. It's semi-functional. Then a liter bottle of water I had stored on top of the refrigerator came crashing down, FLATTENING my sunglasses and knocking a glass off the counter, which broke into a zillion pieces. So I was cleaning that up while I was missing Monday Night Football. And I have NO sunglasses, which I am NOT pleased about. And the fucking kitchen light seems to only light intermittently, it needs new ballast, that is not in the budget.

This month the oven crapped out and had to be repaired, the kids went to the dentist at the end of November and the cost was $475, which was far more than I'd anticipated.

I did order wine and firewood.

Now I need to get my sunglasses fixed. Dr. Lee's office is CLOSED on Tuesdays, is it not..? SHIT. I do not want to set foot outside without sunglasses, no kidding.

The dishwasher was acting up last month, also. And the light. And the oven. I do not want to try and replace the ballast in the overhead light on my own.

Oh well.

Four more days until the kid's Christmas vacation. Flynn was home sick yesterday. I hope that he feels better today.

5:30 and I'm out of web sites to visit and read. Got thrown in "Time Out" on Stern Fan Network, not planning on returning there. Too bad, I was spending a lot of time there.

One bad thing after another. Hang in there.

Rain last night

Late last night. It rains at night here. Pretty good rain. Midnightish.

Felt better hearing the rain, feel better seeing the clouds this morning. I hope that it's not 80 degrees again today. I get fucking sick of the heat by December. Why doesn't it rain more here..?

Flynn is going to Zack Ross' birthday party today from 11 to 1, so Cassidy and I will run some errands during that time.

Then back home again. One more week of school until Christmas vacation. Two weeks off. Looking forward to that. A break.

Had half a cord of eucalyptus delivered last Friday. Three cases of cheap Italian wine were delivered yesterday. I feel wealthy and semi-secure having those things. The firewood is splinterly and super-dry. Burns well. Hardwood, burns hot. Good value. It's also really gorgeous to look at.

Having a supply of firewood is one of the best feelings around. These final few weeks before the winter solstice when it keeps getting darker earlier and earlier do not make me happy nor comfortable. A fire in the fireplace is the ultimate psychic defense. A rainy day without a fire in the fireplace is a missed opportunity.

Tuesday

Here I sit.

In Illustrator I listed the next twenty years and how old the kids will be in each year. And myself. Which was sobering.

Another five years and Flynn will be 18. In ten more years Cassidy will be 18.

Depressing and sobering information on that list I made. There it is. Don't expect a different ending than what everyone else gets.

I'm taking care of the kids now. Not a penny of support from Diane.

The endless insecure feeling of dangling by a thread. Will we get to keep this house? Will the divorce ever be settled..? Could Diane just not fucking kill herself..? Does Hallmark make a card I could send her to suggest that..?

Had the kids home last week for Thanksgiving vacation. Enjoyed that a lot.

Nearly out of firewood. The kid's visit to the dentist yesterday was $475. Which kind of precludes firewood at this time.

Or ordering wine from winelibrary.com. Good wine at low prices, deadly high shipping costs, though.

Diane gave me insurance cards for the kids that cover medical, dental and vision. I don't want to use them. I don't want anything to do with Diane. I want Diane to go far away and stay wherever she goes.

Maybe I'll get busy and re-paint the laundry room. And start on the kitchen. Which I thought I'd have painted over Thanksgiving vacation.

I was wrapping another gift or two this morning. I like seeing the pile of wrapped gifts in the corner of the bedroom.

I'm looking forward to getting a Christmas tree. I love Christmas. I put up the Christmas lights on Saturday, waaaay up on top of the extension ladder. That is intense. New string of "D" lights, the kind Dad used to put on the outside of the house. The big, old-fashioned ones. I had put up "C" lights in years past.

This string of lights blink, which I kind of like. I remember a transparent green light bulb that blinked on some of our old, like Mom and Dad old, Christmas lights.

The kids are still young enough to enjoy Christmas. I love to put up the decorations and play Christmas music, especially The Roches' "We Three Kings," my favorite Christmas music. And the Vince Guaraldi Peanuts Christmas music. And watch Christmas shows like How The Grinch Stole Christmas and A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Time to go do something else. Chilly this morning. Nice change.

Heard from the lawyer. Trial date in November or December? I e-mailed a mediator. What does Diane want? I don't have any more money for more lawyer fees. They blew through four thousand dollars, I'm unsure what on. Not impressed at all with the lawyer.

I want the house. You can borrow against my equity in it. BTW you owe me twenty thousand dollars. And how about some help with the kids? Thanks for no money. So far.

Marriage is a trap.

I'll need to vacuum one of these days. I doubt that will please the cats.

First full day of the Cat Era

The kids are at school. Mr. B is sleeping next to the small aquarium on my desk. Trixie is hiding under Cassidy's bed.

Life is better with the cats here. They've brought cooler weather with them. They are beautiful cats. Cassidy is wild about them.

Friday

I'm 48 now. Cloudy out this morning. Bought some switchplate covers at Home Depot. Finished painting the large wall red yesterday. Took three days. Tired of painting. Still need to paint the mantle and replace it on the wall.

Another iMac

Ordered another iMac identical to the other one. Do I need to buy another copy of Windows?? I hope not.

That ought to end the whining about "The PC" as the kids call it. Fuck Windows. Shitty OS. It's a Mac.

What now? Bought some yellow-orange paint and I painted a couple of the walls in the laundry room.

The screen door looks good, the newly-painted formerly-dark threshold looks good. I finished off the patch on the back of the house and that looks good. I spray painted the plastic table from God knows how long ago with some spray paint meant for plastic. Looks pretty good. It was fucked up.

I ought to dump that propane tank somewhere. Or open the valve and let the propane out. Or use the gas up... by running both burners on the stove for a year..? I've had that tank for ten years, I think. Sheesh.

Today is Friday. Thank God. Yeah, as if my schedule is so stressful... Cassidy said "I can't stand the pressure!" this morning and that cracked me up... loads of pressure in second grade, I'm certain...

The second PC ought to make life easier. Less squabbling.

What else? Three more hours until Cassidy arrives home.

I wonder if Flynn is going to mock the yellow color I painted the laundry room? I think that it looks cheerful.

I ought to pull the corned beef out of the freezer. Although I was planning on preparing ribs for Diane and Flynn for lunch tomorrow. Hopefully Diane won't ask for a ride over and back. That really fucks up Saturday. And I fucking HATE that part of town, Mira Mesa. Nearly as filthy as Anaheim. Yuck. Ugly houses, too much traffic, no reason to be there... it's badly planned. I don't want any part of it.

I was going to smoke the ribs... incinerated some ribs the last time I tried that. I still have most of a box of hardwood chips for smoking in the garage somewhere. Fucking up ribs is expensive.

What else? I ought to vacuum Flynn's room. Or address some bills. This has been a bad month for money.

Or maybe trim some of the tomatoes.. or transplant that one tomato that's still growing. Or mow the lawn... always something to do at home. Good to keep busy.

If I don't think "It feels so good to sit down" at the end of the day when I finally sit down, then I haven't been busy enough that day...

Sitting here listening to a Howard Stern replay. I ought to break down the tomato planters. Try that again next year, maybe.

Waiting for a quote on cutting a drain between War and Cor's house and here. That will be a big improvement. That side of the house has been wet since we moved here. So that will be a big deal.

I'd also like to get the rest of the windows double-glazed. The bedroom windows, two bathroom windows, the kitchen flowerbox thing, the sliding glass doors, the window in the small bathroom, the window in Flynn's room... The window in the garage? Yes, eventually.

In time, if possible, I'd like to get a doorway into the garage from the house. And to add a big bathroom for Cassidy's use. And to make Flynn's room a big larger. And to build a real fireplace and chimney and not a metal box with a metal tube. Some massive fireplace made of real bricks that would absorb heat while a fire burns.

That new iMac is expensive, but it will be nice to have my own computer to myself for a change...

Mr. Castro, when he was out looking at the walkway between War and Cor's house and here, mentioned that the palm tree which had planted itself outside of the small bathroom window would grow to be forty or sixty feet... yipes. Too tall for that space, too tall for the house...

What else is new? Cassidy spilled something on this keyboard and the "a" key sticks. Drives me nuts. I ordered a replacement keyboard with the new computer. And a new Kensington Pilot mouse, which is exactly what the other iMac has. I also ordered another 512Mb SIMM so both computers will have a GIG of memory... shit! Imagine that!!!

The iMacs are 1.83 and have a gig of RAM apiece... this iMac has 768Mb of RAM and runs at 1GHz...

I'd like to replace the squishy gel pad I rest my wrists on while I type. The dogs and then Cassidy have wrecked it.

Change the fish water this weekend. Moved all the larger, aggressive fish to the small tank. Where they promptly killed off six of their number. Moved two small fish back to the large tank last night.

I'd moved all but one of the larger or aggressive fish. Couldn't catch one brass tetra. Asshole fish. I was glad to see those fish kill one another. I want small and peaceful fish.

Sigh. Time to clean the floor again!??!!??! Where does this dust come from?!

I'd like to replace the kid's television sets with a pair of $250 Sony televisions. Those televisions were each $99 or less and have crappy pictures.

I'd also like to replace three of the exterior cameras. I have only the one in the eaves at the front of the house which looks at our parking spot.

Ho hum. Gotta water everything. And attack the final patch of crabgrass. Dangerous Africanized crabgrass...

What next? Go pack up the HDTV receiver which I can apparently keep. Stash that in the garage. There's a small hill of clutter in the garage which I don't seem to be able to get rid of...

Time to go do something useful...